Avs embarrassed in St. Louis

ST. LOUIS - It's gotten to the point where you can just grab a pencil, scan the Colorado Avalanche schedule for @STL and write a little L in the box. Avs games in St. Louis have become scheduled losses, as sure as the sun rising in the east and setting in the west.

The latest game at the Scottrade Center went like they always go for the Avs: Terrible, sloppy start, a bit of a pushback in approximate minutes 20-25 and a fumblin', bumblin', stumblin' rest of the way from there. The Avs to the Blues in St. Louis are the Washington Generals to the Harlem Globetrotters.

Thursday's 6-1 loss to the Blues means the Avs are now 2-13-0 in the last 15 in this building. It's amazing to think the Avs have ever won here, in fact, though it was the site of one of the sweetest victories in team history - Game 4 of the 2001 Western Conference finals, when Stephane Yelle won it in overtime to put the Avs up 3-1 in the series.

Oh, how very distant that all seems now. The Avs just can't play in this building. Aside from a great Gabriel Bourque breakaway goal that tied the game 1-1 early in the second period, they couldn't string a pass together all night, botched defensive assignments all over the place, passed when they should have shot, shot when they should have passed and...well, you get the point.